The Effects of Working Memory Load on Auditory Distraction in Adults With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Abstract

Cognitive control provides us with the ability to inter alia, regulate the locus of attention and ignore environmental distractions in accordance with our goals. Auditory distraction is a frequently cited symptom in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (aADHD)–yet few task-based fMRI studies have explored whether deficits in cognitive control (associated with the disorder) impedes on the ability to suppress/compensate for exogenously evoked cortical responses to noise in this population. In the current study, we explored the effects of auditory distraction as function of working memory (WM) load. Participants completed two tasks: an auditory target detection (ATD) task in which the goal was to actively detect salient oddball tones amidst a stream of standard tones in noise, and a visual n-back task consisting of 0-, 1-, and 2-back WM conditions whilst concurrently ignoring the same tonal signal from the ATD task. Results indicated that our sample of young aADHD (n = 17), compared to typically developed controls (n = 17), had difficulty attenuating auditory cortical responses to the task-irrelevant sound when WM demands were high (2-back). Heightened auditory activity to task-irrelevant sound was associated with both poorer WM performance and symptomatic inattentiveness. In the ATD task, we observed a significant increase in functional communications between auditory and salience networks in aADHD. Because performance outcomes were on par with controls for this task, we suggest that this increased functional connectivity in aADHD was likely an adaptive mechanism for suboptimal listening conditions. Taken together, our results indicate that aADHD are more susceptible to noise interference when they are engaged in a primary task. The ability to cope with auditory distraction appears to be related to the WM demands of the task and thus the capacity to deploy cognitive control.

A Multidimensional Investigation of Sensory Processing in Autism: Parent- and Self-Report Questionnaires, Psychophysical Thresholds, and Event-Related Potentials in the Auditory and Somatosensory Modalities

“…These sorts of group differences might be most naturalistically valid if everyday, real-world sounds are included in task batteries (as in, e.g., Enzler et al, 2021a , b ; Hansen et al, 2021 ). To further enhance naturalistic validity, paradigms could include distracting, task-irrelevant stimuli (e.g., Karhson and Golob, 2016 ; Keehn et al, 2016 ; Blomberg et al, 2021 ). Ideally, such paradigms would allow for controlled analyses of the effects of specific manipulations on sensory processing, without compromising naturalistic validity.…”

Aberrant resting-state connectivity of auditory, ventral attention/salience and default-mode networks in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

“…The resting-state data for this study was obtained from the sample of participants from Blomberg et al (2021) which included 17 clinically stable adults with ADHD (age: M = 28, SD = 6.8) and 17 healthy controls (age: M = 25, SD = 5.1). Of the 17 ADHD participants, 15 were prescribed stimulant medication and abstained from their medication for at least 48 h prior to testing.…”

“…(B) Default-mode network definition comprising of the medial prefrontal cortex (1), the posterior cingulate cortex, (2) and bilateral angular gyri (3, 4). (C) Auditory seed regions used in the current study are the same anatomically defined regions of interest from Blomberg et al (2021) comprising of the bilateral Heschl’s gyrus (1, 2), planum polare (3, 4), planum temporale (5, 6), granular posterior insulae (7, 8), and dysgranular posterior insulae (9, 10).…”

“…Following through on previous work, the current study provides us with a unique opportunity to explore resting-state FC in relation to auditory distraction in this patient group. Here we analyze resting-state data from the same sample of adult participants (ADHD and healthy controls) from Blomberg et al’s (2021) task-based fMRI study that utilized a cross modal attention paradigm to analyze the effects of working memory load on auditory distraction in adults with ADHD. The paradigm involved two main tasks: an auditory task where the goal was to actively detect salient oddball tones amidst a stream of standard tones, and a visual n -back task consisting of 0-, 1-, and 2-back working memory conditions.…”

“…Our third objective (O3) was to explore individual differences in brain-behavioral relationships between DMN, VA/SN, and auditory FC. Here the goal was to determine if ADHD-symptom severity and performance on the 2b-T from Blomberg et al (2021) was associated with increases/decreases in DMN, VA/SN and auditory FC.…”